


Come What May

by Notadate (sixbeforelunch)



Series: Mnemonics [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-08
Updated: 2008-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-07 05:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixbeforelunch/pseuds/Notadate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The blankets are still on the couch rumpled from where she never folded them after last night, the half-drunk cup of black tea in a styrofoam cup is still on the counter from the morning, and yesterday's paper is still laying open on the coffee table, but somehow everything seems unfamiliar, like the remnants of a dream that she's still waking up from.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come What May

Daniel smells like sweat and leather and coffee. He's warm and solid under her arms and Val thinks maybe she could just stay here forever. But then Daniel stiffens and disentangles himself from her. He looks almost guilty when he turns around and looks at the others.

Val looks at all of them and they look so so familiar, but the memory of them slips like sand through her hands. Colonel Mitchell nudges the person who, from Cameron's description, must be the real Colonel Carter and gives her a knowing look. Val has no idea what the look is supposed to mean and she doesn't care, although the eye roll that Colonel Carter gives Cameron almost makes her smile.

The large man with the dark skin must be Teal'c. He regards her with less excitement than the others, but she can see a depth of feeling in his eyes that scares her.

She takes a step back from them, from the force of their collective gazes, suddenly wishing she'd run when she had the chance.

Daniel catches her elbow. "It's going to be okay. We'll take care of you."

Val pulls away from him and crosses her arms over her chest. She nods once and turns away. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Daniel gesturing to the others and she hears a whispered exchange pass between them. She hears her name and an exhortation to give her some time.

Then, louder, Colonel Carter says, "The containment team will be here in fifteen. Teal'c, why don't you go make sure the Trust operatives haven't woken up yet?"

There's another wordless exchange and then Colonel Mitchell says, "I'll, uh, go with you."

Colonel Carter steps closer to her and Val forces herself to stand her ground. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Val shakes her head. "I'm fine. Thank you."

There's a large crate on the floor. Val hops up onto it and sits with her feet thumping out an irregular tempo against the wooden side. She sees a smile pass between Colonel Carter and Daniel. Suddenly exhausted by the weight of their expectations, she lets herself fall back onto the crate, pillowing her head on her hands and staring up at the ceiling of the warehouse.

They let her be until the containment team arrives and she's more grateful for that than she knows how to say. But when she hears the screech of a truck pulling up outside, Daniel reappears in her line of vision. He's looking down at her, leaning at an odd angle.

"Time to go," he says.

She closes her eyes. Daniel takes one of her hands in his. "It's going to be okay. I promise."

It's the second time he's told her she'll be okay and while she's having trouble believing him, she believes that he believes it and somehow that's enough. She lets him pull her to her feet and take her outside to where men in uniforms are bustling around. Colonel Carter is talking to someone in a suit and Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c are helping to load the prisoners into the back of a white van.

It reminds her of an X-Files episode. It reminds her of most of the X-Files episodes, actually, and she says so.

Daniel gives her an odd look, but doesn't reply.

A young man in a light brown suit that doesn't fit him well comes up and hands Daniel the keys to a car. Val finds something funny about the way the young man's back stiffens up when he's around Daniel, the way he can't seem to look him in the eye. Daniel seems oblivious to it and waves the man away with a mumbled thank you.

It occurs to her that Daniel is a powerful man and that he's the worst and the best sort because he doesn't know how much power he has. It's the odd sort of thought that crosses her mind now and then, but at least now she has context for the thought, if not understanding.

"What?" Daniel asks and Val figures she was looking at Daniel strangely, but she doesn't feel like explaining.

Five feet away from the dark blue sedan that Val thinks must be for her, she starts to panic. It starts in her throat and makes the hair on her scalp stand up and tingle. Daniel is standing with his back to her, a phone to his ear. There's a crowd forming next to the yellow tape the police set up. The warehouse and the yard is covered with agents in suits and black uniforms. She watches the others, Teal'c and Cameron and Samantha, directing the scene. The whole setting has an easy practiced feeling to it. The only person here who doesn't know their role is her.

Val slips up next to Daniel and wraps her arm around his. Her doesn't look at her, but she feels him get stiff again. He's telling the person on the other end of the phone that she's fine and "her usual self". He adds the last with a biting sarcasm that Val decides to be offended about. No matter.

The keys are in his jacket pocket. His jacket is big and baggy and it doesn't take much skill to pluck them from his pocket. She gives him another smile and slides up next to the car, slipping the keys into her jeans pocket. The car is near the edge of the scene, it shouldn't be too hard to get away without being see--

"Vala."

Val grimaces at the hand wrapped around her wrist.

"Daniel."

"Where are you going?"

"You're quite good, you know. I mean, I am excellent--where did I learn to be that good at this sort of thing?" Daniel answers her question with a blank stare and Val continues, "Well. I'm very good at this. I don't know much right now, but I know that. And you caught me. You're good."

Daniel's expression is hard to read. "I know you," he says.

"Better than I know myself."

"Right now, yes." He lets go of her wrist. "Will you please trust me that you're going to be okay?"

"I just wanted to get my things."

"We have everything back at the base. No one took anything."

"I don't want her stuff, I want _my_ stuff."

Daniel narrows his eyes at the third person pronoun, but doesn't comment.

"You want me to trust you, let me get my things."

There's a long moment when Val thinks he's going to refuse and have her put in the back of the van in handcuffs like the rest of them. He's looking at her like he's not sure she's got all her marbles lined up. But then Daniel says simply, "Okay."

And five minutes later, they're pulling out away from the warehouse, headed back to her apartment.

*

The back alley smells like trash. More than usual, even, because the dumpster is full. It's late in the afternoon by the time they arrive at Sol's and the apartment on the second floor out the back. Their feet clang against the metal stairs as they climb to what has been Val's home for the last two weeks.

It's strange to think that just this morning, she woke up and got ready for work, listening to the early morning news anchors prattle on about road construction and city budget cuts while she ate her cereal. It's been a long, long day.

She still has her key, tucked safely into the small pocket of her jeans. Daniel hasn't said hardly a word since he agreed to let her come here, except to tell Colonel Carter where they were going.

Inside, the apartment seems smaller than it did before. The blankets are still on the couch rumpled from where she never folded them after last night, the half-drunk cup of black tea in a styrofoam cup is still on the counter from the morning, and yesterday's paper is still laying open on the coffee table, but somehow everything seems unfamiliar, like the remnants of a dream that she's still waking up from.

Val looks around slowly and realizes that there's nothing here she needs or wants. The furniture, the refrigerator, even the TV were all here when Sol first gave her the key. The blankets on the couch are from the thrift store down the street, the clothes mostly given to her by the women who work in the diner with her.

She walks through the kitchenette slowly, tracing her fingers along the worn Formica counter. She looks up and sees Daniel finally, still standing by the open door.

"Make yourself at home, darling," Val says.

Daniel closes the door behind him and sits down on the couch. He frowns and reaches underneath himself, pulling out what turns out to be a pair of Val's bright yellow underwear. It's quite funny to watch Daniel blink, realize what they are, and drop them like a hot coal. He coughs uncomfortably and Val laughs.

There's old pasta in the refrigerator. Vala tosses it in the garbage along with a half-empty bottle of soda, a wilted salad, a stale piece of cake, and a bagel. She leaves the mustard and the olives since they were there when she moved in and should be passed on to the next tenant, and tears open the bag of M&amp;Ms, popping one in her mouth as she contemplates the rest of the kitchenette. The tea goes down the drain and the cup goes in the trash.

Daniel is still sitting on the couch, watching her.

"Do you like what I've done with the place? Personally it reminds me of Hellena."

"Reminds you of what?"

"Hellena. It's--" She realizes she has no idea what Hellena is, it's just a vague place name fluttering through her mind, and this apartment reminds her of it. "It doesn't matter."

Val chews on the a thumb nail, looking over the apartment. There really is nothing here worth taking. She doesn't know why she came back. She doesn't feel any sadness in leaving the place. Why should she? It's a dump and she knows from dumps.

At least, she thinks she does. The details are still fuzzy.

"I've moved a lot, haven't I?"

Daniel looks up from the newspaper. Only piece of reading material in the whole place and he goes straight to it. "Yes."

"Not always by choice."

"No."

Val sits down on the couch next to him, so close that she can feel the heat from his leg next to hers. He shifts slightly, adding an extra couple of inches between them and Val feels a familiar-not-familiar pang of...regret? Resignation? Pity?

"What was I running from that I finally decided to stop?"

Daniel leans back against the couch, quiet for a long moment. Finally he says, "Yourself. Your past." There's a wry irony in his voice when he adds, "All of the people who want to kill you."

"Are there a lot of them?"

"Oh yes."

"I'm starting to think I might be safer working at Sol's."

"Probably. For as long as you can stand it. Which won't be long."

He's right about that. She's been here two weeks and already she has an itch under her skin telling her it's time to leave. The men this morning with the guns, they were the first thing that made her feel alive since she wandered in to Sol's. Still she says, "You presume to know me very well."

"Maybe."

She leans back and puts her head on his shoulder. He stiffens, but doesn't pull away. What is he so afraid of? Does she know? Is she supposed to know?

There's something about him that intrigues her, makes her willing to trust him even when every instinct in her body is screaming at her to hit him on the head and run.

Daniel's hand is resting on the couch between them. She picks it up and examines it in the fading light.

"I remembered you, you know."

"At the warehouse?"

"No. Well, yes. But before that too. You have pretty hands."

"Um. Thank you."

Val smacks his thigh and stands up. "Come on darling, I have a memory to get back."

"Don't you need to get your things?"

"No. No, I think I have everything I need right here."

Daniel's forehead wrinkles into a perfect little crease and then he raises his eyebrows at her and stands up. "You made me drive all this way so you could clean out your fridge?"

"Well you don't want me leaving it for poor Sal, do you? That would be rude."

"We could have sent someone else to--it could have waited until--" He breaks off and sighs.

"Maybe I just wanted to see if you would."

"You just wanted to see if I would," Daniel echoes. Val nods, think maybe it's true and she just wanted the assurance that Daniel was the sort of man who would drive all this way just to make her happy before she went off with him and let him play with her brain.

Daniel shakes his head and then a strange little smile appears on his lips. "Welcome back, Vala."

She smacks him on the back. Hard. "Thank you darling, it's good to be back."

They leave everything else just where it is and lock the door on the way out.

fin


End file.
